We have just enjoyed a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend, with beautiful sunny and warm weather!  Its been really gorgeous!  That makes a change, as the norm is rainy, cold and wet on a bank holiday!  

I have never known a bank holiday here in the UK that wasn't accompanied by copious amounts of rain!

 

I love peanut flavours.  True confession here, I have a slice of toast and peanut butter every night. If I don't, I miss it.  

 

I don't have butter on my toast, or anything else . . .  just a slice of thick whole wheat toast, lightly spread with peanut butter.  

 

I am a happy camper. Peanut Butter is such a versatile ingredient and a real store cupboard essential, at least in my home it is! 

 

This recipe today is for a delicious marinade that you can make for marinating chicken.  You could also marinate other proteins, like pork, fish or even tofu in this tasty mixture. 

 

It works great, and tastes even better!!!

 

I just love the flavour of this marinade. Its an interesting mix of ingredients that somehow work very well together. 

 

 A delicious mix of sweet and salty . . . 

 

I like to use light olive oil.  Its a waste of good olive oil to use extra virgin olive oil in something like this. 

 

I use a good quality light olive oil, one which has been specifically been produced to be used in cooking.

 

You can use whatever brand of peanut butter you like. Myself, I prefer Skippy. Its the North American in me I guess.  

 

I pick mine up by the HUGE jar at Costco, and I probably go through one of those a month, no kidding.  

 

I also prefer smooth peanut butter over crunchy for this, but if you are a fan of crunchy, go for it.

  

Soy sauce.  I like to use the dark one because it is filled with flavour. You can get low salt ones nowadays that are really good.  

 

Honey, just plain regular clover honey works well, and again for the BBQ sauce, just pick your favourite one.   Everything else is pretty self explanatory.  

 

Fresh lemon juice (not the stuff in the plastic squeeze lemon, please!!!!)  Worcestershire sauce and garlic, plenty of garlic.  Its just yum, yum, yum . . .

 

I like to reserve some of the marinade for drizzling over the cooked chicken, or for dipping it in.  

 

Today I grilled some tender stem broccoli along side of the chicken and served it with my Simple Sesame Noodles.  This went down a real treat!

 

  

 

I grilled my chicken outdoors on our Space Grill.  I just love this fabulous BBQ Grill.  It is just so easy to use and makes outdoor grilling fun instead of a chore.  We have had a BBQ for years, and to be honest, we have used this Space Grill more in the few weeks we have had it than all of our other BBQ grills combined throughout the last 18 years.  

 

Seriously I use it almost every day, and sometimes more than once a day, and the main reason for that is because it is just so darned easy to use.  It literally folds out ready for use in seconds, and you can be cooking on it before you can say Jack Rabbit. Its unique patented design is probably one of the best I have ever seen.  

 

When not in use, it tucks away, taking up very little space in the garden.  Its attractive, easy to use, and  works really well.  I love using both the ceramic coated cast iron reversible cooking tray and the stainless steel grill rods.  Today I used the tray.  When done, I find that a simple soak and then scrub with a heavy duty plastic brush gets everything back and looking great again, ready to fold down and store away until next time.  

 

I also love that the drip tray (which is located in the bottom front, beneath the easy to use controls) is so easy to clean.  Just pop it off and wipe it out!  I would not want to be without it now!  To find out more do check out the Space Grill home page.  If you're not impressed I'll eat my hat.

 

We really are having the most beautiful weather here in the UK. This is the type of summer we all dream of but only very rarely get.  It's just lovely.  Its grilling weather, the type of weather you want to be enjoying out of doors.  We get so much rain over here, that when the sun shines, we really do make hay!

   

Or at least cook and eat Al Fresco if we can.  Oh, I do love a good BBQ, don't you?  

  

I took full advantage of our new BBQ grill and temperatures in the 30's yesterday to grill our chicken out of doors.  I love our new BBQ.  Its the nicest BBQ Grill we have ever had, and I can't say enough about it!  But first the chicken! 

 

This lovely dish was adapted from two that I found in a cookery book I have by Clodagh McKenna entitled Homemade.  I love this book. Its a book I picked up a few years ago in a garden centre for next to nothing.

 

There was a recipe in the book for a Moroccan roasted chicken. The flavours sounded lovely and I thought they would adapt very well to grilled chicken pieces.  I was right.  ☺  I love it when that happens.

 

First I created a very simple spice paste/marinade. I put some boneless chicken thighs into a zip lock baggie and added the paste and rubbed it in really well and then popped the bag into the refrigerator to marinate for about an hour or so. I am sure you could leave it overnight if you wanted to.  I wouldn't do it for less than an hour if you want the flavour to penetrate the chicken well. 

 

While the chicken was marinating I made the couscous salad. It also has Moroccan flavours  . . .  I love Moroccan flavours  . . .  cumin, coriander, cinnamon, garlic . . . lemon . . . olive oil . . . so delicious.

 

Middle Eastern food also often has fruit in it, dried fruit, so I added sultanas and you could certainly add chopped dried apricots as well, and maybe a few pine nuts for crunch.  There are chickpeas in the salad also . . . plus parsley, red onions and a punchy lemon/olive oil dressing.  I love chickpeas (garbanzo beans) but they don't always like me!  'Nuff said! 

 

This salad would also be great in vegetarian style sandwiches or wraps mixed with goats cheese, and would be positively lovely served on a bed of rocket greens.  I did not have any yesterday. 

 

The chicken was grilled on the new BBQ over a medium high heat and was done perfectly in about 20 minutes. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and they were beautiful, with slightly crisped edges, along with succulent, well flavoured and tender meat. Altogether this was quite, quite delicious!

 

  

 

The Grill/BBQ we are using is the Space Grill 1800 3-Burner Gas Grill.  The stainless steel Space Grill is a revolutionary idea for modern families with a unique fold-away design which is perfect for garden patio grilling or even the high rise balcony. It fits in perfectly every where, and is as truly versatile as it is beautiful!  You can either mount it on an existing load bearing wall, or you can buy a specifically designed stand to mount it on.  

 

It arrived almost completely assembled.  In fact, it took Todd longer to break down our old BBQ for disposal, than it did for him to assemble the Space grill. Because we don't own our own home, but are in a rental property, we opted to have the separate stand, rather than using a wall mount. Todd found putting the stand together very easy to do.  Once the stand/or wall are ready, mounting the grill on it is a very simple process.

This revolutionary, Australian designed, Chef Grade Stainless Steel grill folds out in about 10 seconds. There is no need for super human strength. Even I have found it quite easy. A simple pivot system changes space into a grill. It is really that easy! 

  

 

I can't stress enough how simple it is to install, with the lid doubling as a splash back it is perfect for those small spaces. Simply light the (independently ignited) burners and start cooking. It has two sides,  with a stainless steel  grill and a cast iron griddle plate that  is flat on one side and ridged on the other. What more could anyone ask for?

• Folds away in seconds
• Sleek modern design
• Stainless Steel for rust resistance
• Massive cooking surface (640mm x 480mm)
• Patented auto fold-down drip tray
• 3 separate individual-ignition burners
• Perfect for apartments to mansions
• Lid doubles as a splash-back
• Fast to install
• Multiple cooking plates
• Reversible cast iron flat / grill main plate
• Includes stainless flame grill plate
• No more ugly BBQ's on the deck

  

Jose and Ariana came over to help us get it up and running. (Todd has a hernia and I didn't want him lifting anything heavy!)  It really was very simple to assemble and get ready for use.  As Spaniards, they are no strangers to the art of BBQ/Grilling, and they fell right in love with it.  I predict after baby comes they might be buying one for their own home!  Its sleek and attractive, folds away conveniently after use and comes with a fabulous cover to keep it safe from the elements.  I can also attest to the fact that it cleans up like a dream!  The parts come off very easily for wiping clean, and that patented drip tray also removes very easily for wiping out and cleaning.  No fuss, no muss!  (And you know how much I like that concept!) We are ever so pleased with it!  If you would like to know more about it, or perhaps even to purchase one for your own use, do check out the Space Grill Site.

 

I really hope this lovely weather continues as I am keen to use this BBQ/Grill as much as I can this summer.  Our old BBQ really didn't perform near as well and was a real faff to get lit and use. Not so this nifty piece of kit.  We are having all the Missionaries over on Monday for a BBQ to celebrate the combination 1st and 4th of July holidays and I can't wait to show it to them!  In the meantime, I am sure we will be using it a few times before them.  With this gorgeous weather and its ease of use, there is really NO excuse not to!  Bon Appetit!